Of Darkness & Solitude

A clear night sky over the Chisos Mountains

H. Oldiges

One of the foundational concepts of the national parks was the idea that solitude and wildness is a necessary component of a healthy society. We now know that artificial light detracts heavily from the natural environment and contributes to the degradation of ecosystems wherever artificial light exists, and it is still being installed at a great rate nationwide.

"Oases Of Darkness"

As the Park Service grew in the early 20th century, most parks and monuments that were being added to the system were in the western United States, and for the most part wild and dark, unfettered by artificial light. There were many writers, commentators and thinkers at the time that believed that preserving nature, to be used by man as a place of refreshment and rejuvenation, a link to days past, was necessary for a balanced civilization. These thoughts and ideas gave rise to the National Park Service.

As man has continued to “light the night” with ever increasing vigor, places like Big Bend, and other wild parks become even more important as Oases of Darkness, which can give those that desire to escape the bounds of the city or civilization, a place to revert to a time when nature was part of the human existence. Parks like Big Bend preserve not only darkness for the benefit of people, more importantly, they allow flora and fauna to thrive in environments that each and every species evolved to exist in—cycles of light and dark, varying in length only by the seasons, for millions of years.

Alterating Natural Relationships

Resource scientists, through extensive research, have found that both plants and animals are having increasing difficulty adapting to artificial light. In some species, migration and reproductive cycles are disturbed by this light. Predator and prey relationships are altered as nocturnal adaptations are interrupted or made difficult by this same human caused element. Yet the amount of artificial light continues to expand. Every day. Seemingly without end. What will be the ramifications for the future?

Wild Space For Reflection

Big Bend National Park is one of the darkest places in the lower 48 states. As such, it is a place where nature exists on terms nature decided many eons ago. It is also a place of solitude, where people can recapture a part of themselves that in many cases has been suppressed by careers, distance, time, or anything that keeps them from being in nature. Solitude and darkness as a component of wildness, wildness as a space for reflection. Solitude and darkness can be a fearful place, but when met with a mindset of potential, can be a place to soothe the soul, and the very reason the national parks were created.

By Park Ranger Bob Smith
The Paisano, Volume 37, Number 1 2019